Colombo or Penang?

Neither city is a true beach base, but Colombo has the better sand close to hand. Mount Lavinia lies within the city's southern edge and Negombo's long hotel beach is an hour north, though both face open surf that becomes unsafe in the southwest monsoon.

Penang's main beach, Batu Ferringhi, is forty minutes from George Town, and its water is often cloudy, with jellyfish at times. The cleaner coves at Monkey Beach and Kerachut mean a forest walk or a boat ride, so the island suits an afternoon by the sea more than days of swimming.

Colombo eats well, with rice and curry spreads, egg hoppers, late-night kottu, lagoon crab and the Burgher lamprais that is particular to the city. Its upper end is limited, though, and is largely seafood and hotel dining.

Penang is the place people travel to just to eat. Its Hokkien, Malay, Tamil Muslim and Nyonya cooking comes from single-dish hawker stalls that have refined one recipe for decades, served at Gurney Drive, in George Town's kopitiams and on banana leaves in Little India. Expect to plan your days around breakfast stalls that sell out by noon.

George Town holds far more to see. The whole old town is the attraction: carved clan houses such as Khoo Kongsi, the indigo Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, the stilted clan jetties and a mosque, a Hindu temple and a church within a few streets of each other, with Kek Lok Si just outside.

Colombo is a working port with a shorter list. The National Museum's royal regalia, the eccentric Gangaramaya, Bawa's Seema Malaka and the mixed colonial and religious buildings of Fort and Pettah fill a day or two. Sri Lanka's ancient cities lie far inland.

Colombo saves its late nights for the weekend, when hotel bars, rooftop lounges over the ocean, a handful of clubs in Colombo 3 and around Galle Face, and casinos open late carry the evening. Arrack cocktails on a sea-facing terrace at sunset are the local signature, and on the monthly Poya full-moon days alcohol is off sale and many bars shut.

Penang's evenings happen at street level instead: a late hawker supper, then backpacker bars spilling out around Chulia Street and Love Lane, cocktails in converted shophouses and a short run of louder bars and clubs on Upper Penang Road. It is easy to drift into on any weeknight, though it winds down earlier than a big city.

Penang puts real forest within easy reach. A funicular climbs the 800m ridge of Penang Hill to cooler air and canopy walks, monkeys line the trails from the Botanic Gardens, and the national park has coastal jungle paths to a lighthouse and a turtle beach.

Colombo is flat and built up. Its outdoor moments are the shade around Beira Lake, birdwatching at the eastern wetland parks and a boat through the Muthurajawela marsh, while rainforest, rafting and tea hills all take a long drive.

Colombo has the better day out in Galle, whose ramparted Dutch fort town is about two hours down the coast by expressway or a scenic railway. Bawa's gardens at Bentota, the mask carvers of Ambalangoda and Negombo's canal and fish markets give you more options on either side of it.

From Penang, the outings are on the mainland. Ipoh's old town and cave temples are the pick, with Taiping's lake gardens and the royal town of Kuala Kangsar as quieter choices, but most visitors stay on the island the whole time.

Penang is easier with children. Splitting the stay between George Town and a Batu Ferringhi resort gives pool afternoons, and Teluk Bahang's water park and butterfly park, the Penang Hill funicular and mural hunts in town give children something to aim for each day.

Colombo welcomes children just as warmly but has less made for them: the Dehiwala zoo, kites on Galle Face Green and a coastal train ride. The rough city sea and pavements unfit for pushchairs mean most families move on after a night or two.

In Colombo, tuk-tuks booked through an app do most of the work, and the coastal railway is the pleasant way down to Mount Lavinia. Walking only really works along Galle Face, around Beira Lake and in parts of Fort and Cinnamon Gardens, because the heat, uneven pavements and wide roads wear you down elsewhere.

George Town's heritage core is compact enough to explore on foot, with a free shuttle looping through it and trishaws or rental bicycles for short hops, though the five-foot ways are broken by steps and parked motorbikes. Beyond the old town, ride-hailing beats the slow buses, and the jammed north-coast road makes Batu Ferringhi feel further away than it is.

The two are evenly matched, and the most interesting shopping in both is in the old quarters rather than the malls. Colombo's draw is Pettah's wholesale bazaar, where each street keeps to one trade, along with handloom cotton and batik in the colonial villas of Colombo 3 and 7. Ceylon tea, cinnamon and gems from a trusted dealer are the things to bring home.

Penang's equivalent is craft. Joss-stick makers and rattan weavers work around Campbell Street, Chowrasta Market sells nutmeg products, and there are saris and gold in Little India and Peranakan beadwork in shophouse boutiques.

Both are cheap places to travel, and in both the money goes in the same places: the street food is a bargain, the transport costs almost nothing, and taxed alcohol pushes up the bill on nights out.

The difference is where costs rise. In Colombo, the big seafront hotels and upscale seafood restaurants charge close to international rates, and some temples and museums charge foreigners more. In Penang, it is the restored shophouse boutique hotels and Batu Ferringhi resorts, while most clan houses and temples cost little or nothing to enter.

Colombo's performance life sits in fixed venues: the lotus-shaped Nelum Pokuna for concerts and visiting productions, the Lionel Wendt for local drama and recitals, and a symphony orchestra that plays several times a year. The tradition worth seeking out is Kandyan and low-country dance, with its drumming, acrobatic leaps and elaborate costumes.

Penang's best moments follow the calendar and spill into the street: the George Town Festival in old warehouses and shophouses, Chinese opera and getai stages in the Hungry Ghost month, Thaipusam processions and lion dances at Chinese New Year. Outside those dates, Penang's live music comes down to a few bar bands and acoustic nights, and neither city has a nightly round of shows to build a trip around.

Colombo has the more distinctive offer, because Ayurveda is a living local medicine there. Clinics around the city give warm-oil massage, shirodhara and prescribed courses, and the residential retreats at Beruwala and Bentota are close by for a full week of treatment.

Penang relaxes you more casually, with inexpensive foot reflexology and Chinese or Malay massage in George Town, resort spas at Batu Ferringhi and cooler evenings on Penang Hill. In both, the traffic and heat in town mean real rest usually comes from a few days by the sea.